The Finnish Cup match against LeKi-futis was just as difficult in terms of team play as I predicted, and as a result we are out of the competition before it really even started for us. The scoreline was a predictably tight 1-2 (1-1), our only goal coming from a kick from the spot. So much for the big dreams, and it’s back to the drawing board for the team. It would be in my nature to let this match make me pessimistic about the upcoming season,

but the only conclusion that can actually be drawn at this point is that there is still a lot of work to be done before we are ready for the Nelonen season. And even that is something we all knew before the match.

There weren’t a lot of positives in the match to be quite honest. Ilkka Innola was excellent in goal and kept us in the match at some key moments. Mika Kytöviita was lively as the lone center forward, but never got the goal-scoring chance he would have needed. Timo Kauppinen was a leader in central defense like we are used to, and was also dangerous in the box in our set plays. Andrea Milanti was constantly dangerous, but too often without enough support from his teammates.

A lot of our problems can be summarized like this: we need to make better decisions when we lose the ball as well as when we get possession back. LeKi had numerous counter attacks, and at times it seemed they could just walk through the midfield. and even bring in a second wave of reinforcement without anybody really doing anything about it. And when our defenders or midfielders got the ball, there was not enough movement from other players to open up passing lanes, and as a result there was a lot of wishful long balls that rarely resulted in anything positive.

Not to look for excuses, but we were sorely missing a natural winger on the opposite side from Andrea Milanti. In that respect the absences of Petri Vadén and Jan Riikonen definitely hurt us. And when Mika Kytöviita had a knock that forced a substitution, we did not have an option on the bench to replace him. Juha Kumara was lively when he came in, but absence from team training recently showed in a lack of sharpness. Most of our chances came from set plays, many of those a result of LeKi players being unable to stop Andrea Milanti without either fouling or playing the ball out of bounds.

All this negativity aside, we had our chances to win the match. LeKi’s winning goal was preceded by a number of chances both ways, and it could have literally gone either way. The game-winner was an unfortunate blunder from us, where a midfield free-kick was played into the wing to a player who had all the time in the world to look for a perfect cross without anything bothering him. That perfect cross found a LeKi-player rushing into the box, and it was an easy headed goal.

There’s no escaping the fact that the better team won. I’m confident that by the time we meet again in a Nelonen match later this spring or summer, this will be reversed. In this early winter fixture LeKi benefited from having a team that has been together for longer than just a few weeks, but if our coaches do their job right, this advantage will be gone very soon. The work starts today with team training and continues on Saturday morning with a Nelonen Winter League match against PP-70.

TamU-K – LeKi-futis 1-2 (1-1)
3 min 0-1 Toni Ryyppö
31 min 1-1 Juho Lehtovaara (pk)
65 min 1-2 Janne Lehtimäki

Discipline:
65 min Janne Lehtimäki, LeKi-futis (caution)
80 min Juha Kumara, TamU-K (caution)